deercountry | (no subject)

"Here come in come in! Oh, but take off your shoes! Don't worry, I have house slippers. But house rules, no shoes inside." She took him in. "Is there something I can help carry?" she asked.

"And don't worry! My kitchen has plenty of space! Do you want me to take the pot?"

It took a moment for Luke to process everything that got thrown at him from Usagi's mouth, before he finally let out a chuckle, offering the pot to her.

"Here," he said. "Careful, it's on the heavy side."

He pulled off his boots once she had a secure hand on the pot, setting them carefully aside before slipping his feet into the house shoes instead.

She talks a mile a minute, learn to keep up or just smile and nod. Besides, she's not even properly EXCITED yet.

She 'oofs' as the pot is moved into her arms, surprised by the weight a bit since Luke basically made this look like it was practically nothing. BUT the power of food gave Usagi strength and so she managed to carry it without issue into the kitchen.

"Here! Come join me in the kitchen!"

Usagi would eventually learn that all those clothes he wore hid someone that was very fit and very well built, but that wasn’t going to be today.

He shuffled after her, absently wiggling his toes in the slippers as he walked, not used to such a thing. On the farm, there was literally sand everywhere — slippers like these would have maybe lasted a couple of hours — and in the Rebellion there was no time for comforts like slippers. Of course he was going to enjoy it while he had the chance, though he stopped by the time they got into a kitchen.

He went over to help her get it up onto the stove once they were in there, popping the lid off to check the inside, before nodding to himself and lifting it up to pull the harness out.

“Okay, should just need to heat this up for a bit,” he said, reaching for the stove controls. “You got a spoon?”

Usagi blinked and then grinned at that question. Does she have a spoon? She shook her head and opened up the silverware drawer with knives, forks, spoons, and chopsticks enough for ten people and then opened up another drawer with ladles, spatulas, wooden spoons, and more.

"What size would you like?" she grinned, crossing her arms and leaning against the kitchen island.

"ALSO! You are my guest, so let me get that hot chocolate started." She pulled down one of her mugs, realizing she was going to have to get Luke his own mug now that he's visited.

"But yeah, my best friend is a master chef, she has basically every cooking tool you could ever want. And if she doesn't, we make sure to go get it."

Luke grinned at the reveal of the great amount of kitchen utensils, taking a deep breath and focusing hard as he reached a hand out. It took an embarrassing amount of effort, and he really despised how slow the wooden spoon of his choice wobbled its way over to him, but eventually it landed in his hand. He opened his eyes, not even realizing he had closed them, and shrugged sheepishly.

"This place messed with my abilities in the Force," he admitted, starting to stir the pot as the heat started to warm through. "I'm working on it, but it's not going too well."

He turned his focus back to the pot for the moment, though he peered over at the mention of her friend being a master chef, grinning.

"You know... I used to like helping Aunt Beru in the kitchen," he said. "I think I would have loved exploring that, if things hadn't happened as they did."

"Heeee that's so cool you can do that." But at the mention of this place messing with his Force abilities she frowned.

"Messing with it how?" Would Obi-Wan be able to help Luke with it, she wondered? Could she? "Anything I can do to help?" she offered in the way she always did, expecting, however, to be turned down since her understanding of the Force was next to nothing or from off-handed comments and explanations from Maul.

When he moved on to his aunt, she merely moved to stand next to him, watching the food and then looking back to him.

"You should. That's what this whole place is about, right? Trying things we never could back home?"

Luke smiled at her offer, but shook his head.

"I don't think so, but it's okay," he replied gently. "I'm pretty sure it's the change in blood that affected me. My ability to move objects was weakened, but my mental abilities have become stronger. I can sense things better than I could before, though sometimes the thoughts and feelings of others can be a little overwhelming."

It was why he hadn't really settled anywhere, yet; being in one place for too long meant he ended up picking up people's emotions and thoughts a lot easier. It was one thing with other Force users, there was usually some control, some buffer, which was why he usually spent time at Maul's place. Normal people, though? It was so much harder.

He peered down at her at the encouragement, a grin appearing on his face.

"I might. Maybe start a little restaurant once the need to keep moving around finally settles," he replied, a slight teasing tone in his voice. "Though I get the slight suspicion I'll only have one regular."

"Oh... then... my apologies," she blushed. Gosh, she already knew she was a LOT for Rei as a psychic and empath, Mamoru too, and she TRIED to tone down around them. She hadn't known about Luke or she would have tried for him too.

"Nonsense, you'd have two. Obi-Wan would come to see you every day just as much as I would," she grinned back up at him. "A restaurant sounds like a great idea, Luke. I think you should, if that's what you want!" she wondered what she wanted, now that she wasn't going to be queen. She had never thought of herself outside of that.

"I'm trying to think about that myself, ya know? Figuring out what I want to do. I had a pretty set future for me back home."

Luke shook his head at that.

“Don’t worry, Usagi; you’re fine,” he replied. “It’s mostly… large crowds where it gets hard for me to focus, where there are many, many emotions going back and forth at once and they’re all hitting me at once.”

If he was honest, the fact that Usagi was always so bright and honest with how she felt made it a lot easier to interact with her than it did others.

The mention of her having a set future back home drew a faint hum out of him, very much understanding how that felt. He peered over at her, the look on his face clearly asking if she wanted to elaborate or not.

"Oh, you're- well let's just say I'm actually used to people with that ability. I don't suppose the Force and meditating would let you tune all that out?" she asked as she looked over at him. I'm not very good at it, but you probably are."

Usagi just couldn't quiet her thoughts long enough to actually sit still and concentrate like that. She either fell asleep or her thoughts wandered all over the place or she would get up and do something else. All the benefits of meditating (and she was aware there were many), were lost on the rabbit.

At his looking at her, she blushed and realized he was waiting for her to go on.

"Er, it's nothing," she offered, going deep red. "I'm just not sure what I want to do here in this world if that makes sense."

“It… helps,” he admitted, before he shrugged a bit sheepishly. “I… still have troubles calming my own mind enough some times. Or I go in too deep and next then I know it’s eight hours later.”

He peered at her curiously as she started blushing, before a soft, understanding smile came to his face. For a moment, he turned back to the stew, stirring absently, before he spoke.

“It does make sense,” he admitted softly. “Back home… I have a pretty set future. I need to restore the Jedi to the galaxy, bring their light back to the people. But… right now, I don’t know where to start. I have to pass on what I’ve learned, and I know who I can start with, but I’m not sure where to go from there, or if there’s more I need to learn before I can even start teaching.”

She contemplated revealing herself and then made a noise, sighing.

"That's not too different from my own future, bringing light to others. We don't have Jedi but..." she rubbed her arm, looking up at the kitchen ceiling. "Back home..." she bit her lip. "But anyway, what I'm being asked to do, I don't know the first thing about how." How does one become queen of an entire planet?

"Meanwhile, no one asks anything of me here. It's weird to get used to."

She turned back over to him. "I'm sorry I can't be of much help about teaching and all that, I'm a pretty terrible student."

Luke smiled gently as she struggled to say what she wanted to say, as if to gently assure her that she didn't need to tell him anything she didn't feel comfortable with him knowing. Stars knew he had his own share of secrets that he wasn't willing to give out yet, even to his own father. There would be a time and a place for those secrets to come to light, but it didn't have to be forced if it could be avoided.

Instead he focused on the last part of what she said, letting out a soft chuckle. He paused a moment, testing the stew first and nodding to himself, before turning down the heat enough to keep the pot warm as they started serving themselves.

"I don't believe there's such a thing as a terrible student," he finally replied. "Just terrible teachers that don't know how to connect with the people they're teaching, and don't attempt to make that connection."

"Mmmmm, you've never been my teacher," she offered, blushing. She had no faith in her abilities to learn. When you're friends are literal geniuses in so many ways, being below average tended to exacerbate the issue.

"You'd sing a different tune if I had to be your student, though I don't know what you'd teach me either," she snorted in amusement.

She got a bowl and filled up a massive portion, grabbing a spoon.

"Here, let's go to the dining room."

"I don't know about that; I'm certain I could figure some way to help you out," Luke replied, not... quite sure if he was teasing or not. It would certainly be interesting if he could help her with something, but he wasn't even sure what to teach her. Sure, he was a Jedi, but he wasn't exactly sure how much Jedi philosophy could help people that didn't have the Force.

He plopped down in the dining room, taking a spoonful of the stew and sticking it in his mouth, chewing on the meat thoughtfully. Well, he wasn't just a Jedi, but he wasn't sure how to balance a farm's income or being a freedom fighter or flying a starfighter would be helpful either.

"...you know, I am trying to think of something to teach you now."

She sat down with her own bowl, immediately digging into her soup. She lifted a brow, surprised he was still focusing on what he could even teach her.

"Mnn, I rather like you liking me rather than thinking I'm a dumb student, so it's probably best you DON'T know what to teach me."

"It would take a lot more than being a 'poor student' for me to stop liking you, Usagi," Luke replied easily, because it was true. Usagi was too bright and wholesome not to like; he couldn't even imagine her sinking to the level of betrayal that would take him to shift his opinion, and even then his first assumption would be she was being manipulated rather than she had sunk so low of her own volition.

"You know... maybe I could teach you some Jedi philosophy," he added after swallowing a mouthful of food. "Obviously anything with actually using the Force wouldn't work, but being able to keep calm under pressure might be helpful."

Especially in a place where they could randomly end up facing their worst fears without warning?

Usagi blushed deeply again. There he went with those compliments. She merely ate her soup in silence, wanting the red on her cheeks and ears to die down before she answered him.

She looked over to him at the mention of Jedi philosophy. Admittedly, everything she knew about the Jedi was from Maul's incredibly skewed perspective so she took just about everything with a mountain of salt. And she had gleaned some things here and there from Obi-Wan, but maybe actually finding out what it was Maul was so deeply opposed to from an ACTUAL Jedi wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"Uh, sure, if you want?" she's not sure how she suddenly became a student of Jedi philosophy, but here they were. "But again, fair warning, I'm a terrible student."

Edited 2022-05-30 18:51 (UTC)

Luke, bless him, did not seem at all deterred by that. Instead, he offered her a bright smile, a little bit of stew juice almost escaping from his mouth in the process. He paused a moment to lick at it, grabbing up a napkin to wipe it off, before he spoke.

"Tell you what," he said. "You have faith in my ability to teach, and I'll have faith in your ability to learn, and we'll figure out the rest along the way."

She laughed as she offered him a napkin.

"Maybe I'll have to teach you something too," she offered. "Don't know what, but something," she grinned as she took another sip of her stew. "But for now, let's eat."